Rogers has been testing the waters with LTE here in Ottawa, Ontario for the last couple of weeks, and now they’re ready to push in to the big city. A Toronto LTE rollout has been announced for September 28, and along with offering the LTE internet stick currently available, there will be some other new hardware to come out along with it. An LTE version of the Samsung Galaxy S II will be a part of the launch, along with an HTC handset (maybe the Holiday?), and a tablet (the PlayBook or the new Galaxy Tab are likely candidates).
Rogers is claiming average speeds between 12 and 25 Mbps, which is well above the 14.4 Mbps max currently offered by HSPA+ (though 21 Mbps and 42 Mbps upgrades may keep HSPA in the running for awhile). The maximum current speeds top out at 75 Mbps, and the theoretical maximum on this standard will extend to 150 Mbps. The biggest concern at this point is having devices that actually support the new speeds, so it’s good to see Rogers is addressing that gap for their Toronto launch. Of course, there’s also the worry that we need to have viable plans for the new network too, otherwise LTE is just a way to get people to hit their measly 200 MB (or 6 GB at best) caps more quickly, so Rogers can start laying on the overage charges.
I’ve been using the LTE internet stick for awhile here in Ottawa for the last little while, and the speed has been more than enough for my daily computing and the latency is even good enough for me to get my game on after hours. Of course, the network isn’t particularly weighed down just yet, and I’m curious to see how Toronto fares in a real stress test. Regardless, good on Rogers for moving forward with their LTE network, and for not being douchey like Bell by racing to play the “4G” marketing card.
You can keep up to date on Rogers’ LTE progress over at their mini-site.
[via RedBoard]